Whitesburg Baptist Church closes daycare

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - Whitesburg Baptist Church will close their daycare on May 31.

Senior Pastor Darryl Craft said they've been working to bring clarity and alignment into the church, and this is the first step.

"We've been looking at all of our ministries, all of our programming, our facilities, and we have some needs that we want to address so that families, when they come, they will find excellence in everything that we do," said Craft.

However, many families who use Whitesburg's daycare said the email they received on the closure was too vague.

"To notify parents at 8 p.m. on a Monday night, to notify the staff at 5:30 or 6:00 on that same Monday - If you've been praying about this, if you've been talking about this for months, why would you conduct yourself in this manner to the parents that have been supporting you and the church," asked Joe Lang, a parent of a child who attends Whitesburg's daycare.

The email didn't answer many questions. The Lang's feel that the email made people make assumptions instead.

"There's just a lack of professionalism, a lack of courtesy if you read the letter," he continued.

Joe and his wife, Traci, are now wondering what the church's core values are since the letter says: "The facilities for preschool, children, and students need major improvements in order to be in alignment with our core values."

Now hundreds of families are looking for a new daycare, and most of them have long waits.

"The waiting list around here for a good daycare is long. It took us a year to get into Whitesburg; I only have 60 days," Traci said.

Craft said there's nothing wrong with the daycare, it just doesn't align with their vision of the church.

"There was nothing wrong with the daycare, there were no issues in our daycare. It has a greater picture as to the reason why we're making this decision," said Craft.

Craft says shutting down the daycare was a hard decision, but he feels it will help the community.